Professional Triathlete

This blog was written end of december …. so there may be a “Few” incorrect statements😉

The DTC experience with thanks to Redbull.

Has been quite some time since I have blogged , and I realize this is due to my break and some time away from “Work” . A rest was really needed after this season !

The past 2 months since my last race have been quite spectacular and I have really enjoyed my break after Auckland .

Started to get back into training on the 1st of December and things have been up and down for the start of my base . This is both good and bad , as I have lernt a few things in the process.

This past week, I was lucky enough to join Ryan Sandes “ Ultra trail runner” Ryan Payne and Lawrence van Lingeren to a week in Austria with thanks to Redbull international . This past week I was at the DTC “ Diagnostics and Training centre” in Thalgau where quite a bit of abuse took place .

The trip was to see where I am in my training and to see where I can improve , and lets say there is definatley space for improvement !

After this spell of testing I’ll be back in “the Ville” Durbanville and will be hitting out a few miles before X-mas and new years . Next year promices to be a year of even more growth , a few out of the ordinary races and should be a spectacular year .

I also have my 1st coach Joel Filliol and will be working closely with him in order to get my performance up to the next level . There should always be another step in an athletes floor .

At the start of my career as a triathlete I knew it would take 3-4years to get my swim down , and I believe with the guidence + advice from Paul newsome “swim smooth” , Neil Mcpherson and Joel I’ll be able to make the next step in my swimming .

Redbullis another amazing company who is helping me in my career and I am truly a lucky athlete .

So for now , its the good old festive season with fam and friends🙂

Hope everyone stays safe over the holidays, and is ready for an amazing 2013 .

With my 2nd last race in Japan at the end of September the season has been very long . I went through the event while being sick, and this had a huge impact on my health .

After a big push in Japan finishing 9th overall , and moving up the ITU rankings to 5th , I knew that I needed to pull my socks up with 3 weeks till the final in Auckland .

From Japan – Wollongong and then on to stay with the Barrie family . Upon arrival I was still quite sick and knew that I would need to take things easy for a few days before starting a small block for Auckland on the 22nd October .

Motivation and fitness levels were at a all time low at the start of my 2week stay in the Gong , but luckily I had Jamie Turner to help me through it .

Wollongong is really a training mecca and allowed me to focus on trying to get as much out of the 2 weeks to try and get myself in the best possible shape for the 2nd most important event of my season!

After a few days, a package arrived from South Africa with medication to fix my glands and throat and I was soon with the Aussie squad putting in a solid week training leading up to the week before Auckland .

The travel from Wollongong to the Copthorne Hotel in Auckland took a lot longer than I anticipated , but I was soon settled in by randomly sprinkeling my clothes and posessions everywhere .

A few very easy days was needed to get my body recovered for the race, and with the sign of a very wet race approaching I realized I needed other race wheels .

Pre race day prep was done with the current World junior champion – Wian Sullwald from RSA and my body felt like it was in the best shape since the Olympic Games .

Race day came and so did a change from carbon race wheels to a set of Aluminium lighweight race wheels …. I knew they were light , but was not aware they would put my bike to 6.69kg .

Everything went smooth pre race until my KTM revelator was weighed and came 100gramms short of the UCI weight limit of 6.8kg .

This then put me into a panic, as It was 1hour before the start of the race and I hadn’t done my run or swim warm up .

A trip to the bike mechanics saw me strapping a 17 spanner to the bottem of my top tube, brining my KTM to a more legal weight of 6.89kg🙂

Nothing like a bit of bike pimping before a race I say !

The bike course, a monster with 24hills in it lay in waiting and we were soon underway with myself wearing the #5 swim cap .

My swim went very well, and I felt smooth and in control . I still battle to think that my 18:18min 1500m was on;y good enough for 37/45 athletes and this saw me into the 2nd group with J,Brownlee and Richard Varga in a 30second break.

The bike ride , was one of the most physically and mentally demanding courses I have done to date . A monsoon , loose rear wheel , near crash , time trail and skewer tighten was all part of the cycle race for me in Auckland .

I noticed after, that I hadn’t tightened my Tune skewers tight enough and the wet weather had managed to make them slip a bit during the hard efforts out of the corners .

Coming through transition I put the power down and my rear wheel almost came out of my bike causing me to slide out of control and almost eat the cobbels under the blue carpet .

I decided to stop at the top of the 3rd short climb and quickly tighten my rear skewer .

This then saw me needing to time trail back to the group and this took a lot of energy. We then had 5 laps to go, and my legs were really starting to show signs of fatigue at the top of the 1st climb .

The gap to the front bunch closed to around 20 seconds by T2 and I knew that this would allow me to pick off a few guys after the run …. BUT how many ?

I noticed that Alexander Brykankof had crashed out , and this ment that I would move up a place in the overall rankings to 4th !

Out of the run, my legs felt good , but were cramping a bit due to the hard/wet/cold bike . Closing a few guys down by the end of the 1st lap I noticed that Igor Polyansky was just ahead of me and I needed to beat him .

I decided to keep my pace, and he remained about 20meters in front of me for about 2 laps . I was going to keep them in firing range and take them on the last lap of the run . This didnt really go to plan as they went very hard on the last lap as did I .

9th place was mine just ahead of closing David Mcnamee and Ryan Sissions from NZL .

Wet , tired , happy , I found out that I was 5th overall in the series and was going to drug testing again .

What a race , what a year … last year I started with WTS “world triathlon series” racing and ended 63rd overall .

I would have likely not raced in Auckland if it wasent for the guidance and assistance from Jamie Turner – HP U23 Coach from Australia .

This season I have trained a lot with them, and without the “Wizards of Wollongong” I would not have had such an enjoyable and lucrative season !

A big thanks goes to my family, sponsors , South African Federation and everyone who has assisted in making 2012 the season of my life .